Today’s “Fab 4” / Selected NYCity Events – MONDAY, SEPT 02, 2013.

West Indian American Day Carnival 2013 – Today’s Top Pick 
If it’s Labor Day, it’s time for this cultural explosion – the annual parade and carnival from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Eastern Parkway from Schenectady Avenue to the Flatbush Avenue Extension. Best to go early before the crowd gets rambunctious.
(718) 467-1797, wiadca.com (NYT)

U.S. TENNIS OPEN (through Sept. 9)
Once inside check out the electronic scoreboard listing current matches. Find the match or players that interest you. Head over to their court for some great tennis, because this late in the  tournament they are all great matches.

There is no other major sporting event where you can get so close to world class athletes as on the outer courts (or the Grandstand court) at the U.S. Open; where you can get a real sense of the pace of the game.

Security screening has been ratcheted up, causing delays to enter, although it has gotten better. Remember: no bags means no long line for entry.

Today’s tip: Lines to get into the show courts will be long this holiday weekend. Pick a court with matches you are most interested in and stay put – today that means the Grandstand court.
Who to watch today:
» Camila Giorgi, a qualifier and giant killer who knocked out #6 seed Caroline Wozniacki in her last match, vs countrywoman, #10 seed Roberta Vinci. Can young Camila keep her magical run going? This match is the first on the Grandstand, my fave court.

» David Ferrer vs Janko Tipsarevic, whose 5 setter last year at the Open was memorable. These are two disciplined, consistent players and each point will be hard earned. This match is the second on the Grandstand court, so stay put after Giorgi vs Vinci.

» Ana Ivanovic vs #2 seed Victoria Azarenka, not because Ana can beat Vika, but because she can’t, which means this will likely be the last opportunity to watch the always lovely Ana play singles this year.

The best, most comprehensive review of the tournament and the current state of tennis can be found at the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/tennis/index.html

New York International Salsa Congress Dance & Music Festival 
“Get ready to salsa! Each Labor Day weekend in the City, the New York International Salsa Congress Dance & Music Festival comes to town, featuring four days and five nights of nonstop fun. Included are workshops, performances, competitions and live concerts with bands and DJs lasting well into the early morning hours. The 13th annual festival takes place at the New York Hilton Midtown.” (nycgo.com)

Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit (weekends thru Sep 08)
“In 1931, New York artists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning propped up a few of their paintings on the sidewalk near Washington Square Park and called it a show. A lot has changed since then: Now, more than 100 artists and artisans—including painters, sculptors, jewelers and glassblowers—exhibit their wares at the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit.” (TONY mag)
University Place, from East 13th St to Waverly Place, WestVillage
12-6 PM / FREE
(212) 982-6255, wsoae.org

Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:

“African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde” (through Sept. 2)
‘The Civil War and American Art’ (through Sept. 2)
‘Photography and the American Civil War’ (through Sept. 2)
“Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective” (through Sept. 22)
‘The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi’ (through Nov. 3)
“Legends of the Dead Ball Era” (1900-1919) (through Dec. 1)
“Eighteenth Century Pastels” (through Dec. 29)
“Julia Margaret Cameron” (through Jan. 5, 2014)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org

‘Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney’ (through Sept. 2)
“Monika Grzymala, Volumen” (through Nov. 3)
Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th St.
(212) 685-0008 / themorgan.org.

“New Harmony: Abstraction Between the Wars, 1919-1939” (through Sept. 8)
“Aten Reign” (through Sept. 25)
……the centerpiece of James Turrell’s first exhibition in a New York museum since 1980, recasts the Guggenheim rotunda as an enormous volume filled with shifting artificial and natural light. {see review below}
Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.

Light and color wash the Rotunda. 
“Turrell works in a single medium: light. He has sliced into walls, designed seamless rooms with holes in the ceiling, and spent four decades building a giant naked-eye observatory in the Arizona desert—all to provide unexpectedly intimate and mysterious views of the sky, the sun, and the stars. For this segment of a three-part show running concurrently in L.A. and Houston, he’s turned the museum’s atrium into a giant light box. —J.D.” (NYmag)

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Ten museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 110th Street – Museum for African Art
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York
• 92nd Street – The Jewish Museum
• 91st Street –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• 89th Street – National Academy Museum
• 88th Street – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
• 86th Street – Neue Galerie New York
• 83rd Street – Goethe-Institut
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additionally, though technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th St. and the The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave. Now plan your own museum crawl.
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Top Photography Exhibitions – NYCity / Manhattan’s WestSide

  Museum of Modern Art

XL: 19NewAcquisitions in Photography (through Dec. 31)
Walker Evans: American Photographs (through Jan. 26, 2014)
11 West 53rd Street / 212-708-9400

  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Photography and the American Civil War (through Sept. 2)
Julia Margaret Cameron (through Jan. 5, 2014)
Everyday Ephiphanies: Photography and Daily Life Since 1969 
(through Jan. 26, 2014)
1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) / 212-535-7710

   ICP
A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial (through Sept. 22)
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street / 212-857-0000

  American Museum Natural History 
Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies          
(through May 31, 2014)
79th St. And Central Park West / (212) 313-7278 

  Staley-Wise Gallery
It’s An American Thing (through Sept. 14)
560 Broadway, Soho / 212-966-6223

One more photo exhibition, this one in a special setting – the lovely, new Bklyn Bridge Park with spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline, and of course, the Brooklyn Bridge.
(easy to get to via subway: #2 or 3 express to Clark St. 1st stop in Bklyn.)

‘The Fence’ in Brooklyn Bridge Park (through Oct. 1)
“When is a fence not a fence? When it is the backdrop for a free display of over 200 jury selected images of people, animals and daily life by 39 photographers from the United States and abroad. Presented for the second year by United Photo Industries, a Brooklyn arts cooperative, as a showcase for young photographers, the display consists of a 1,000-foot-long waterproof mesh banner superimposed with color and black-and-white photos.

The banner stretches through Brooklyn Bridge Park, from Pier 15, at Joralemon Street and the East River in Brooklyn Heights, to Main Street in Dumbo.” (Anne Mancuso-NYT)
Pier 5, Joralemon Street and the East River
From 6am to 1am / FREE
(718) 215-9075 / fence.photovillenyc.org
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 08/25 and 08/23.